You can also access the syllabus at this link.
ENGL 11000: Freshman Composition
(EC4, #14834)
Fall 2023, 3 credits, 4 hours
Instructor: Tim Dalton (he/him/his)
Instructor’s Email: [email protected]
Instructor’s Office: NAC 6/332-D
Instructor’s Zoom Link (as needed): https://ccny.zoom.us/j/4537798403
Instructor’s Office Hours for Students: T/H 12:30pm-1:30pm
Course number: ENG 11000 EC4 (#14834)
Class Dates & Times: T/H, 2:00pm-3:15pm
Classroom: NAC 6/304
Course Site (on CUNY Academic Commons): https://doitlikethis.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
Daily Schedule & Activities: https://tinyurl.com/ccnychalkboard
Syllabus
course description
Welcome to your first-year composition (writing) course! This semester we’ll explore the connections between writing, reading, rhetoric, and critical thinking. You’ll practice writing for different purposes and audiences, and you’ll both give and receive substantial feedback on your and others’ writing. As learning from each other will be a large part what we do, you are expected to be an active participant in the classroom community.
course topic of inquiry
For the purposes of building our critical reading and thinking practices, we will engage several readings on a shared course topic of inquiry: “The Politics of Language.” We can understand this course as drawing on the topic of language and literacy as a vehicle for critically analyzing and developing our own languages and literacies. We will explore questions such as these: What is the relationship between language, race, and power? How do attitudes about language standards empower and oppress language users? What are the historical and political implications behind how “Standard English” is valued and traditionally approached? How are we—the readers and writers participating in this class—affected by the ways that language and literacy function in the U.S.? That is, how do our language backgrounds affect our lived experiences and how we are perceived and treated by others?
course texts and materials
This is a “ZERO Textbook Cost” course. As such, all materials will be accessible on Blackboard and Slack.
We will also read a collection of student writing (yours, your peers’, and others’). Please either print or have digital access to all course documents and materials for class.
online technology and software requirements
You will need to regularly access to:
- Blackboard (CCNY’s online teaching support system where you’ll access and submit materials)
- Google Drive (a free online file storage site where we’ll share and collaborate on our writing)
- CUNY Academic Commons (where you’ll create a digital portfolio)
- Word-processing software of your choice: Microsoft Office, Office365 (available for free to CCNY students), Google Docs, etc. No matter what you use, please save all documents as .doc or docx files and please no links, PDFs, or Pages files.
I strongly recommend you make an effort to organize our course documents and your work. Create a designated “English 110 Fall 2023” folder on your computer and be strategic in how you use subfolders and title documents. You will need to return to assignments, so the more organized the better. Computers, as you know, are susceptible to crashing and freezing. Save your work frequently and back up your files (in multiple places!).
course learning outcomes
In this course, you will work to
- Examine how attitudes towards linguistic standards empower and oppress language users.
- Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.
- Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.
- Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.
- Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences.
- Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias.
- Compose texts that integrate a stance with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, analysis, synthesis, and argumentation.
- Practice systematic application of citation conventions.
